Device for reeling wire, tape and the like



y 2, 1968 A. A. c. BARNETT 3,390,340

DEVICE FOR REELING WIRE, TAPE AND THE LIKE Filed Aug. 9, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 y 1968 A. A. c. BARNETT 3,390,840

DEVICE FOR REELING WIRE, TAPE AND THE LIKE Filed Aug. 9, 1965 2 SheetsSheet 2 United States Patent 3,390,840 DEVICE FOR REELING WIRE, TAPE AND THE LIKE Arthur Alec Cecil Barnett, Greenford, Middlesex, England, assignor to S. Davall & Sons Limited, Greenford, England, a British company Filed Aug. 9, 1965, Ser. No. 478,073 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Aug. 28, 1964, 35,391/ 64 4 Claims. (Cl. 242-5512) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A magnetic wire recording device with very long continuous recording time has wire stored on reels. The wire is driven by applying drive to the reels only, the drive to one reel being controlled by a servo mechanism sensitive to the wire tension. A rod rotatable independently of the drive extends from close to the constant speed driven reel to close to the recording head and the wire is trained over the rod at each of these spaced positions. The rod is caused to rotate by the wire and resists difference in speed of wire travel at the two positions. The rod thus imposes on the wire at the head the effective stability of the wire close to the reel.

The invention relates to reeling wire, tape or the like.

The invention provides a device for eliminating or reducing unwanted speed variations between two spaced points along the path of a driven wire, tape or the like, which device comprises rotatable means at the two points coupled to the wire at the two points to be caused to rotate by the wire, and additional coupling between the rotatable means at the two points, which additional cou-' pling resists any difference between the speeds of travel of the wire at the two points.

The invention also provides a device for eliminating or reducing unwanted speed variations between two spaced points along the path of a driven wire, tape or the like, which device comprises a rigid rotatable member extending between the two points and having the wire trained over it at each of the two points in such a manner that the member is caused to rotate and to resist any difference between the speeds of travel of the wire at the two points.

The invention also provides apparatus for controlling wire, tape or the like fed from a reel, comprising means drivingly coupled to the wire at a point close to the reel, means drivingly coupled to the wire at a point remote from the reel, and coupling between the said means driven respectively at the two points, which coupling resists any difference between the speeds of travel of the wire at the two points.

The invention also provides apparatus for controlling wire, tape or the like fed from a reel comprising a rotatable member extending from close to the reel to a point remote from the reel, the wire being trained over the rotatable member close to the reel, so as to cause the rotatable member to rotate when wire is fed from the reel, and the wire being trained a second time over the rotatable member at the point remote from the reel.

Preferably the rotatable member has a high rotational inertia.

Preferably, to increase its rotational inertia, the rotatable member has a region or regions of larger diameter than that over which the wire is trained.

Preferably there is provided a flywheel which is caused to rotate by rotation of the rotatable member.

The invention also provides a wire, tape or like recording mechanism, in which wire, tape or the like wound off one reel onto another is guided past a recording or playback head remote from the reels, comprising a rotat- 3,390,840 Patented July 2, 1968 ice able member extending from close to one of the reels to adjacent the recording or playback head, so that the wire, tape or the like can be trained over the rotatable member close to the said one reel to cause the rotatable member to rotate, and the wire, tape or the like can be trained a second time over the rotatable member near the recording or playback head.

The invention also provides a wire recording mechanism comprising two reels, wire wound on the reels and passing from one reel to the other over guiding means which guide the wire past a recording head remote from the reels, a rotatable rod mounted close to one of the reels with its axis parallel to the axis of the reel, the rod extending beyond the reel to a point close to the recording head, the wire being trained to pass around the rod close to the reel and to pass a second time around the rod close to the recording head.

A specific construction of magnetic wire recording mechanism embodying the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of the recording mechanism with some parts omitted,

FIGURE 2 is a diagrammatic side view of the recording mechanism with some parts omitted,

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic section on the line AA in FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a diagrammatic perspective view of part of the recording mechanism.

In this example the magnetic wire recording mechanism is for recording operational flight data in aircraft, in praticular for providing a record of such data which has a good chance of being recovered should the aircraft crash.

The recording mechanism is of the form described in our co-pending patent application Serial No. 461,139, filed on June 3, 1965, by Roland William Gordon Somervell for Drive Reversing Mechanisms. Two reels 11, 12, on which the recording wire 13 is wound, are rotatably mounted between suppolting rectangular plates 14, 15. The plates 14, 15 are supported at their corners by four pillars, of which two are shown at 16, 17 in FIGURE 1.

The wire 13 is guided from one reel to the other by a system of pulleys 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. The pulleys 18, 28 are mounted on a reciprocating carriage 29 which causes the wire to reel onto and off the reels evenly. The reciprocating mechanism is described in our co-pending patent application No. 461,139. The pulleys 23, 24 mounted on a pivoted arm 31, form a jockey pulley arrangement which controls the speed of drive of the reels so as to tend to maintain constant tension in the wire.

Recording heads 32 (omitted from FIGURE 1, but shown in FIGURES 2 and 4) are mounted on the plate 15 so that the wire 13 passes the heads 32 after running over the pulley 25, i.e. in this example, when recording, the wire runs off the reel 11 and onto the reel 12. The direction of this movement is indicated by arrows on the wire in the drawings.

A rotatable rod 33 is mounted in hearings in the plate 14, 15 so that the axis of the rod 33 is parallel to the axes of the reels 11, 12 and the rod 33 is close to the reel 12. One end of the rod projects through the plate 15 close to the recording heads 32.

As shown in the drawings, the wire 13 is trained over the rod 33 so that the wire passes over the rod 33 at two spaced points 34, 35. The rod 33 thereby being drivingly coupled to the wire at each of the points 34, 35. One point, 34, on the end of the rod 33 which projects through the plate 15, is close to the recording heads 32. The other point 35 which follows the movement of the reciprocating carriage 29, is close to the reel 12 and the wire 13 is wound onto this reel 12 immediately after passing over the rod 33. The wire 13 in its path between the spaced points 34, 35 is looped overpulleys 26, 27, 28 which are spaced apart from one another and from the rod 33.

The pulley 26, Which is tilted as shown in FIGURE 1, is provided for guiding the wire 13 over the rod 33 at the point 34 in such a way that the wire 13 is not in contact with itself where it crosses over itself and that the wire moves over the rod 33 in the same direction at the two points 34, 35 where it is trained over the rod 33. The pulley 26 also provides for control of the length of wire which is in contact with the rod 33.

With this arrangement, the rod 33 frictionally resists any difference in speed of travel of the wire at the two points where the wire passes over the rod 33.

In this example a flywheel 36 (shown diagrammatically in FIGURES 1 and 4) is mounted on the rod to provide increased rotational inertia.

In this example, the arrangement is advantageous in that it reduces the effect of vibrations on the speed of the wire past the recording heads.

It has been found to be desirable to use wire of diameter 0.002 inch so that it is not necessary to avoid twisting of the Wire to obtain satisfactorily reproducible recordings. It will be appreciated that wire of such thickness is very sensitive to external vibrations. However, with the arrangement of this example, satisfactory recordings, i.e. recordings with an error not more than of the order of :t% due to instantaneous variations in speed of wire travel, have been made with the recording mechanism of this example when subject to vibrations up to 150 cycles/see, at 6 g (where g=acceleration due to gravitation).

It is the comparatively long length of wire path necessary between the reels which renders the recording mechanism sensitive to the above mentioned range of low frequency vibrations. The arrangement of this example has the effect of imposing close to the recording heads the resistance to such vibrations of the wire which is only a short distance from its contact with the comparatively high inertia reels. Thus, in this example, the rod is close to the reel when the length between rod and reel of wire trained over the rod onto the reel is sufficiently short not to be seriously affected by vibrations in the range up to approximately 150 cycle/sec. Similarly the end of the rod is close to the recording heads when the length between the rod and the heads of wire trained over. the end of the rod is sufficiently short not to be seriously affected by vibrations in that range.

However, in this example, the resilience of the stack of wire stored on the reels and, for example, unevenness in the reeling of the stored wire give rise, to fluctuations in speed of the wire close to where it runs onto the reel. In this example the inertia of the rod 33, increased by the flywheel mounted on it, serves to smooth out these fluctuations. This smoothing effect by a flywheel which has small inertia compared with the reels, is rendered possible by the resilience of the wire.'

The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing exarriple.

1. A recording mechanism comprising 'a recording or playback head, a wire, tape or like extended member, drive means drivingly coupled to the extended member whereby the extended member is. fed along a path when the drive means are in operation, control means which are rotatable independently of the drive means and which are engaged by the extended member at two spaced points in the said path, one of which points is close to the point at which the drive means imparts drive to the extended member and the other of which points is close to the recording or playback head, the control means being caused to rotate at each of the two points solely by the action upon the control means of the extended member when the extended member is fed along the said path, the control means providing coupling additional to that provided by the extended member itself between the said two spaced points, which additional coupling resists any difference between the speeds of travel of the extended member at the two points. i

2. A recording mechanism as claimed in claim 1, in which the drive means comprises at least one reel on which the wire, tape or like extended member is wrapped and the control means comprises a rotatable rod mounted close to the reel and with its axis parallel to the axis of the reel.

3. A recording mechanism as claimed in claim 1, in which the control means comprise a rigid rotatable mem ber extending between the said two spaced points and over which rigid rotatable member the wire, tape, or like extended member is trained at the two points.

4. A recording mechanism as claimed in claim 3, in which the rigid rotatable member has a region of larger diameter than that over which the wire, tape or like extended member is trained.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,273,024 2/1942 De Vry et a1 226-61 2,535,478 12/1950 Arndt et a1. 179-100.2 2,685,417 8/1954 Bartelson 242 2,855,749 10/1958 Eshuis 5755.5

LEONARD D. CHRISTIAN, Primary Examiner. 

